


Coffee

by the_empty_pen



Series: PHWEEK2020 [4]
Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: College AU, M/M, and leo being a disaster human being, big gay here., can u tell I'm a literature nerd from this?, crack writing honestly, elliot and leo can't do shit, elliot being gay, this is just a big mess of elliot being a disaster gay, well.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23682367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_empty_pen/pseuds/the_empty_pen
Summary: “People tell me that I’m too gay for this world a lot and you know what? That’s fair”, Leo said.And now, Oz slammed his head into the table after all.
Relationships: Elliot Nightray & Oz Vessalius, Leo Baskerville & Oz Vessalius, Leo Baskerville/Elliot Nightray
Series: PHWEEK2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700932
Comments: 7
Kudos: 24





	Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> I'M always very down for college AUs so I obviously chose that. well. this isn't nearly as dark as my other prompts, so have fun! It's really just something cute and gay and Elliot having internalized homophobia and everyone around being like 'mate calm down'.  
> And Oz being a good friend.
> 
> :D
> 
> there's a short mention of alcohol and drugs but jadhadfghadj in a fun kind of context.

**Roses die, the secret is inside the pain.**

“Why is every kind of coffee so _disgusting_ at this college? Can’t they afford a better machine or something? I’m sure all of us would gladly donate a euro if they ever considered it, but no, we aren’t worth anything.” 

Oz raised his head at those words, his head buried in a book which he was supposed to read for literature class. 

“Wow, Elliot, what happened to make you that angry?”, he asked putting his limited Holy Knight bookmark into ‘Othello’ and closing it. When Elliot was upset to a point where he almost kicked the coffee machine, he wouldn’t get to read anyways. 

“That damned coffee just tastes as if you had put a damned hamster into this machine and killed it or something!” 

As disgusted as Oz was by the idea of hamster juice, he still had to laugh at the random comparison Elliot had just made up.  
He knew that Elliot wrote poems, but he’d never read one of them before. And after this, he wasn’t too sure if he wanted to. 

“Now sit down, take a deep breath-“ 

“Oh shut up, you little brat!”, Elliot said and everything Oz did was to sigh and lean back. So, this would be a long lunch break.  
He liked Elliot. He was one of his best friends after all. But sometimes he would just be completely irrational or angry at totally unimportant things. And he wouldn’t calm down until Oz made him talk about it and that would take ages and a lot of screaming, too. 

“Fine. I’ll be quiet then.” 

Nevertheless, Elliot sat down next to him, the dark brown plastic cup of coffee in his hand. Oz did wonder how he could hold it – the coffee from their cafeteria was always steaming and hot to the point of burning his tongue.  
The silence lasted for exactly ten seconds. 

“I can’t take this anymore!”, Elliot blurted out and he ended up pulling his hand away from the cup, shaking it a few times to get it to cool down. 

“Oh, what is it?”, Oz tried sounding neutral. He really did. Still, he couldn’t quite get the tiny smirk from his face.  
The faint blush on Elliot’s face told him everything he needed to know. 

“It’s that girl in our music class!”, he said, seemingly agitated. Oz knew exactly who he was talking about. To be honest, he had forgotten her name already, but Elliot hated her with a burning passion, so it wasn’t too important, really. Elliot also didn’t expect him to remember the name, so she was just “that girl”, said with a biting undertone. 

This had been going on for a few months now.  
Elliot had a crush. He hadn’t yet told Oz who it was, but really, he didn’t need to. It was clear as daylight and even if he was blind, he would still know who the mysterious ‘girl’ was.  
He wished he knew why Elliot was making such a fuss about it, since him being straight was obviously not even a possibility. Anyone who so much as tried to assume that Elliot was into girls probably wasn’t in their right mind. 

“What did she do now, Elly?” 

In moments like those, he was allowed to call him by this nickname. Mostly because Elliot had much bigger problems than a nickname, after all. 

“She tried flirting with my- my- my-“, he stuttered the word so often and Oz was close to just ending the sentence again, “crush again.”

“I’m still questioning who this girl is because she’s obviously really gay.” 

No, she was totally straight and Oz knew that.  
Elliot’s crush was no other than his best friend Leo Baskerville who just so happened to have exactly one girl being head over heels for him.  
Not that Leo was interested, of course. 

Anyone who so much as tried to assume that Leo was into girls had probably drunk a shit ton of alcohol or smoked a whole bucket of weed.  
Not only did he wear pride chucks and t-shirts with rainbow flags pretty much every day, but he also just acted gay.  
However, Oz didn’t know if Elliot’s crush was requited. Mostly because Leo hid feelings his very well. 

But Elliot didn’t even dare to ask Leo. Or mention anything related to it. Instead, he just sat around him blushing like a goddamn tomato.  
Oz had considered to play matchmaker – but Elliot would probably kill him and Leo too, if he realized. 

“What? Gay..? What, I- but-“, Elliot seemed to have understood his own mistake, “ah right. Yeah. Yeah, sure. God, Oz, what am I supposed to do? I’ve sunken so low. I’m asking you for advice on crushes. I can’t believe it.” 

Ok, it was enough. He wouldn’t be able to endure more of that. 

“Elliot, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I know fully well who your crush is. You can just say his name, it’s all fine and dandy, I’m not judging you for liking a guy or anything. I know your family isn’t exactly the greatest, but they won’t know if I know. And I know it already.” 

Elliot straight-up flinched at that, raked a hand through his hair and then tugged on his shirt like crazy. He was nervous. 

“Well- I mean… ok, then. Who do you think it is though, I mean, just in case you’re wrong or something-“

Right in that moment, the glass door to the cafeteria opened and someone else stepped in whom they both just so happened to know very well.  
Pride chucks. A black t-shirt with rainbow sleeves. Dark purple shorts with white dots that were honestly just horrible. One light blue sock and one orange sock that definitely weren’t meant to go together.  
Oz wondered if Leo ever looked into a mirror. Judging by his disheveled and visibly uncombed hair, probably not.  
Also, no question, Oz liked Leo. A lot. He was one of his best friends – but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t question his sense of fashion.

Oz cocked an eyebrow at Elliot, then nodded into Leo’s direction and that pretty much confirmed all of his theories.

“Hi, Leo!”, he shouted then, waving at him with a beaming smile, desperately trying not to let it shift into a smirk with Elliot sitting next to him, obviously a disaster gay in love.  
Leo just yawned as a response and slumped into the seat opposite of them. 

“Elliot.” 

The one who was addressed almost jumped up, grabbing his coffee and taking a huge, desperate gulp of it to hide his embarrassment.  
“Huh?”, he asked, coughing once more, then collecting himself a little, “what’s up?” 

“Your hair is a disaster”, Leo commented and at first, Elliot wanted to comb through it again with his fingers, until he dropped his hands and gave Leo a blank stare. 

“Says the one who probably never looked into the mirror in an entire week. Or into his wardrobe, as it seems.” 

Leo took ‘Othello’ out of his bag, too, put it onto the table and yawned again. 

“Wearing two different socks is very stylish, you damned posh kid. Now let me read, this stupid girl in music is tiring me out. I can’t deal with girls trying to flirt with me, honestly.” 

Oz giggled at that and nudged Elliot’s shoulder encouragingly, but he remained as stiff as a stick.  
So, he really had to take this into his own two hands now? 

“I’m not a posh kid! I just happen to be born into a rich family!" 

Oh, they were already back to bickering again, Oz was back to third-wheeling.  
God, sometimes he really couldn’t deal with them. 

“As a matter of fact, Elliot, you are a posh kid”, he interfered before there was any chance of chairs flying through the windows or something, “now, Leo, what happened exactly?” 

Elliot hadn’t gotten to tell him the story, so Leo would do. 

“Asked me out on a date”, Leo snorted, “imagine if you were dumb enough to think I’m straight. I always thought I looked gay enough, but maybe I should start bringing a rainbow flag to college or I don’t know, write it on my forehead. Why does she even like me? There’s definitely hotter guys in our music class." 

It was now or never. Oz had the perfect comeback to that. 

“Elliot, for example”, he said with a wink and for a moment, there was an awkward silence between all of them. 

“I’m going to murder you”, was the first thing he heard from Elliot, as a whisper, right next to his ear.  
The second thing was the sound of Leo’s hair touching his shoulders as he nodded in agreement.  
The third thing was Elliot letting out an inhuman screech. 

Oz liked them.  
But he was so very tired of all this tension and he wondered why it hadn’t been clear to him before that Leo requited that crush.  
Of course, Leo was good at acting and hiding what he felt, but the gay tension between them was way too much to not see. 

“Don’t look at me like that”, Leo sighed, “you aren’t bad-looking. Except for your hair or your posh shirts, maybe.” 

Instead of freaking out about the teasing, Elliot’s face became completely flushed. 

“I can’t do this anymore”, Oz grumbled, right as Leo reached his hand out. 

For a moment, Oz thought he would take Elliot’s hand and confess. Instead, he grabbed the coffee, snitched it away and drank some of it himself, taking advantage of Elliot’s rather… poor state of mind. 

“What can’t you do anymore, Oz? Read Othello? I actually think it’s quite nice. Nothing will ever be worse than that one book I had to read for German class with a man who only ate peas-“ 

“No!”, Oz interrupted him and almost hit the table with his head, then refrained from it. He didn’t want Ada to question it if he had a big bruise on his head. 

“What then?” 

“Your… your gayness!”, he said, not really wanting to confess for Elliot. That wasn’t his place to do. But if he didn’t do anything at all, those two would never even try to act on their feelings. 

“People tell me that I’m too gay for this world a lot and you know what? That’s fair”, Leo said. 

And now, Oz slammed his head into the table after all.  
For a short moment, he was blinded by the pain and that was actually a good feeling for once.  
That way, he didn’t have to think about how stupid those two were being.  
He eventually came back to his senses. 

“Yeah, you’re really gay. But Elliot is really gay, too. And I think that both of you are really gay for each other and I can’t endure this any longer, so you talk it out now and drink your stupid coffee. I, for one, am going to read Othello now. This hurts. Don’t you dare speak to me before you’re holding hands.” 

Now he’d done it. He had confessed for Elliot after all, but well, he didn’t have any regrets.  
Elliot was a mess.  
Even Leo was blushing.  
They were probably going to kill him for that tomorrow. 

He took his book into one hand, his bag into the other and then walked through the door, only glancing back one time.  
Elliot was blushing furiously, and Leo was still sipping the coffee as a distraction. 


End file.
